First let me say, it shouldn't be like this. But this is what it is. We have a habit, just as we're seeing with the current FP brujah with Bernie Sanders and Shaun King, of talking past each other.
I think Shaun is a good guy, I think Bernie is a good guy, I think Hillary is a good person to have on our side. I think they're all ultimately on the same side, but they're not acting like it. Not yet.
In this first video both the BLM spokesperson and HRC make some very excellent and salient points starting with the issue of mass incarceration as well as the method of creating and agenda for change, that other advocacy groups from the original civil rights movement to the women's rights movement an LGBT groups have done, that can accomplish tangible and reasonable goals that move things forward in a concrete way.
There is no arguing, there is only each person expressing themselves and I believe both make very important, salient points. Worth watching without my, or the media, further editorializing or commenting.
If you've seen video of this conversation on stations such as CNN, you will notice you have not seen the above. You have not seen where they both, from either side of the argument, made clear and compelling cases for both what is wrong, and what needs to be done.
It's after this point that things begin to run off the rails as we'll discuss over the flip.
This video below is the one that's gotten all the press, because in it the BLM spokesman says that the problem is "White Violence against Black people", to which Hillary responds "well if you want I'll talk to the White People about that..." - which actually is not a bad idea.
It's in fact, the very least that right thinking white people should be doing. It's at that point that they get into the discussion of what it is that you can change. Hillary argues, I think honestly, that you're not going to change "hearts and minds" easily, but that you can change the levers or power toward a more balanced system.
On the fact of it, she has a point, but on the other side the system is run by people and if their hearts aren't in it then it's far too easily for the system to be corrupted and continue to produce a biased and inequitable result.
When the BLM activist says that Hillary is "Victim Blaming" she responds with this.
Look, I don't believe you change hearts. I believe you change laws, you change allocation of resources, you change the way systems operate. You're not gonna change every heart. You're not. But at the end of the day we can do a whole lot to change some hearts and change some systems and create more opportunities for people who deserve to have them to live up to their own God-given potential ... You can keep the movement going, which you have started, and through it you may actually change some hearts. But if that's all that happens, we'll be back here in 10 years having the same conversation.
I think, honestly, she has a point. But also that if we
don't change hearts and minds but only change laws and policies we'll
still be back here in another 10 years going over the same issues yet again
It's already against the law to unfairly discriminate just as much as it's against the law to rob, steal and murder. Has that fact alone reduced the amount of theft and murders to zero? No, it kinda hasn't. If we want to end all bigoted discrimination it's going to take a revolution of consciousness, a renaissance of understanding, not just more laws and policies.
In the end, on the road to that revolution and renaissance, we all don't have to perfectly agree on everything.
We don't have to all be working from the same marching orders, or trying to accomplish the same agenda. There are multiple paths to the more promised land. Martin walked one path, Malcolm walked another. Booker T. Washington walked one path, James Baldwin walked another. Sojourner Truth walked one path, Frederick Douglas walked another.
#BlackLivesMatter may be the the ActUp! and CodePink of our time, and that's alright.
If they had not had the guts and cojones to be speak up, and to sometimes be demanding if not obnoxious, they wouldn't be having a one-on-one with Hillary Clinton. Or Bernie Sanders, or Martin O'Malley, or anyone.
If they hadn't made the issue urgent we wouldn't be paying as much attention as we are now. Trust me, I've been writing about all these issues for over 20 years, it. wouldn't. be. happening. Just like Occupy did, they've put their own asses on the line.
But perhaps, coming up with a comprehensive and progressive agenda of action to not simply express that #BlackLivesMatter as an abstract idea, but a specific set of policy changes and proposals.... maybe that's something we can start working on.
Yes, let's address mass incarceration. Let's address the deterioration of public schools, the bias we see even against black college graduates when seeking jobs, redlining and bigotry and lending that lead to creating hopeless slums and ghettos, drug policies that help foster an underground economy of crime, but let's also seriously address the cop mentality of violence and paranoia. The attitude that any life is there's for the taking at a moments notice if they merely fail to comply, or simply fail to comply quickly enough, or properly enough, or maybe the did comply but still the officer(s) decides THEY. MUST. DIE because the risk is simply too great that they might give someone a hangnail.
Or a headache.
Or an extra form to fill out.
Particularly if it's a scary, dangerous Black Life. but certainly not exclusively against them.
Until we address the violent bully culture of police forces that were created as modern day Slave Patrols we've barely begun to scratch the surface.
And we'll be right back here again in 10 years. And 20 years. And 30 years.
Vyan
9:47 AM PT: As pointed out in comments there was more to the conversation than these two videos show. Full Transcription Here.